I finished A Dance With Dragons last night. Took fucking ages, but I really loved every page. I just can't think of any comparable work of world-building in any medium - even the Lord of the Rings, for all its appendices, doesn't feel like a real world in the same way that Westeros/Essos does. In terms of characters, there's barely a strand in it that I didn't look forward to (Bran was obviously quite dull, if intriguing, and I'm not actually as enamored with Jon Snow as a lot of people are). My only issue was his Goosebumps-style chapter endings which promised near certain death to a character ("He sank beneath the waves, and felt the water fill his lungs") then would reappear in the next chapter all fine and dandy.

Also, I think I want to write a big essay on 'The People's History of Westeros', and talk about why we never see action from the point of view of the "smallfolk".

Please talk about rumours, fan theories, and all that stuff here, I'm going to be lost in the Wikis for a while.

and as such don't remember what happens in any particular book, or even what the books are called.

I was very pleased to be done with them by the time I was- I was pretty bored by the end and really doubt I'd have ever bothered going back to them if I'd taken breaks between books. The world building was the problem. Martin has wonderful ideas but he's not that great at the actual writing, is he? Bogged down by meaningless peripheral detail and there's a chronic overuse of words, even entire phrases, throughout.

that the way the narrative is split left me with at least one book (might have been two, can't remember) that was nothing but the characters I found excruciatingly boring. Probably the worst thing about reading on a Kindle was turning a page, seeing SANSA or whatever name she assumed at the top of a fresh chapter and then looking at the bottom of the screen to see you had '27 minutes left in chapter' D:

i don't read books for 'strong female characters', i read books for 'not being really boring and shit and poorly written and hundreds of thousands of pages long and also high fantasy is the worst thing of all time'

books for 'strong female characters', i read books for 'not being really boring and shit and poorly written and hundreds of thousands of pages long and also high fantasy is the worst thing of all time'

and absolutely hated it. Admittedly this was a few years ago, and may have been a bad starting point since it threw you in the deep end with the mythology, but still, nothing about it got me revved up like GRRM did.

Also, I sort of think that what ASOIAF amounts to is a huge critical study of the idea of monarchy and nobility and its many and inherent failings. The later focus on slavery, and how Tyrion explicity compares it to the feudal system of Westeros, seems to hint at it, and it would be amazing if the whole thing ended with Westeros establishing some kind of republican democracy. I'm sure it won't, and the "rightful king" (whoever that turns out to be) will claim their place, but that's what my essay will be about.

For the whole series we've assumed Daenaerys is the rightful Queen, now that's upset - does she still fight for power, wrongly, or accept her journey in the last five books has been for nothing? It's another strand of the whole "Kingship is really stupid" idea.

Also, why would Jon Connington go with the whole fake thing, unless the switch were made before he knew about it?

I'm a big fan of The Great Northern Conspiracy (that all the Northern houses are playing the Boltons, Freys and Stannis against each other while they secretly manoeuvre a Stark - Possibly Jon Snow following Robb's will - back into power).

I'm less sold on the Heresy theory (that the Others are actually good and it's the dragons who are evil).

Dany is blates the Prince That Was Promised. Jon is the Night's King come again

Everyone bangs on about how casually GRRM kills characters, but it's easy to do when they just pop up again half a book later. Aside from Ned and Robb, have any proper heroic characters actually copped it?

The other side is Tywin fucking hates Tyrion and if there was the smallest doubt he would've thrown him in the river at birth. Also Tywin quit and switched because he's a savvy man who could see which way the wind was blowing

"My son Wendel came to the Twins a guest. He ate Lord Walder’s bread and salt, and hung his sword upon the wall to feast with his friends. And they murdered him. Murdered, I say, and may the Freys choke upon their fables. I drink with Jared, jape with Symond, promise Rhaegar the hand of my own beloved granddaughter…but never think that means I have forgotten. The north remembers, Lord Davos. The north remembers, and the mummer’s farce is almost done."

I read them all one after the other across about six months. First one was absolute top notch. Not a word wasted. Every book after that added an extra 200 pages for absolutely zero gain. I think the third (or fourth one) almost killed me. Beyond that, all the crap about it not being good writing, etc., is banal elitism.

But I do love it overall. And I'm hoping that he lives long enough to write the next one (and that I live long enough to read it). Gotta be at least 2 years away.

unless the end is less unified than I see it being. Also, it feels like there's a whole Stockholm syndrome with her and Littlefinger, I don't know how under his influence she really is - we haven't really seen any of this Harry the Heir character so it's hard to judge.

Like your idea about the Valanquar being Jamie - is he definitely the younger of the two?

Whilst you're waiting for the next book, what other fantasy/sci-fi series are you also reading?

My brother lent me The Lies Of Locke Lamora, and it's brilliant. It's essentially The Hustle/Oceans Eleven set in an alternate medieval Venice, where a group of young street urchins are inducted into a gang of con-artists called the Gentlemen Bastards and scam their way to riches. And it's very funny. Like Christopher Brookmyre re-writing Oliver Twist.

The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss
The Magician books by Lev Grossman
But best of all is Malazan: Book of The Fallen by Steven Erikson. Seriously worth a look if you like ASoIaF. Stunning books. I'm only on book six of ten but they just keep getting better and better. The world-building is staggering.

A word of warning though. The first book, Gardens of the Moon, is pretty tough going at first. You're just chucked right in there. No explanation, no exposition, no context to speak of, nothing. Just a whole load of characters doing a whole load of (extremely cool, imo) stuff. I love that but apparently some people don't.
The rest of the series is similar in the lack of exposition. Erikson doesn't feel the need to explain every last little thing. Refreshing.

Also, GotM was written about ten years before the rest of the series. If you find some of it a bit clunky at first don't worry, it does get better.

Found the Magician books incredibly dull after a brilliant start.
The lies of Locke Lamora was a great book - the second was nowhere near as good: Red Seas Under Red Skies?
Current favourites:
Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence. Very, very dark but very good. Also not as ludicrously long as most fantasy trilogies - but is very good at world building (it's set on post apocalyptic Earth).

Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson: This was very good. Only three books and despite their length it's not a mad commitment like some of the other ridiculous fantasy epics.

Any of the Joe Abercrombie books. Dark, moody stuff.

Just recently I've read Alif the Unseen which is well worth a read as it's set in an unnamed emirate.

Where is Rickon, where Davos is so scared to go?
Is Sandor Clegane actually dead?
Is Ser Robert Tall the reanimated corpse of Gregor Clegane?
What is Arya's overall arc? Because I'm a bit tired of her stuff.
When are we going to get more Sam action - what's going on in Oldtown?
Howland Reed seems to be key to revealing more about the Tourney at Harrenhal - where is he?

Rickon and Asya (sp) are on Skagos. It's apparently populated by cannibals
The hound is supposedly dead, but something about teh monastry rings a bell
Yes, Gregor Clegane has been re-animated by the Maester chap
Arya on Essos is pissing me off too
Pass about Sam - not too keen on his character
Howland Reed is key because he is the only other person (apart from Ned) who knows what happened when Lysa Stark died and was found. Therefore he probably knows the true identity of Jon Snow. He lives in the Greywatch tower

1. Rickon is on Skaagos, which is like some dark magic island. It's also where Ned's mum is from where it will be revealed that's where the Starks get their powers from

2. I think we're supposed to think Sandor is at the monastery digging graves

3. Probably. Stupid.

4. My hunches - either Arya commands a wolf army to fight the others, or she gets given orders to assassinate Sansa

5. The Oldtown stuff bores me rigid

6. At some stage a character is going to meet Howland Reed and he is basically going to tell us the whole story - he was at the Tower of Joy and witnessed Lyanna's death too. So he's going to tell us how Ned took Jon as his own to protect him as Lyanna's dying wish, and that Ned who loved Ashara Dayne and knocked her up but miscarried (according to Selmy) had to tell her he killed her brother and was going home to Catelyn to secure the allinace his bro was supposed to fulfil so she killed herself